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Show iMANY VISIT IRELAND. T?ecord Year for Tourists In Emerald Isle Drawn by Exhibition. Limavadj-. Ireland, Oct. 5. In this I record year of tourists visiting in Ire- i land the minds of Irish people turn 1 naturally to the many lovely spots ! which our island affords. The exhibi- ? tion was, of course, the loadstar which I 'drew people to our shores, but the I beauty of the land held them. Most of j the famous old cities and places noted for their beauty were visited by those I who had plenty of time at their dis- posal. aterrord is one of the oldest cities In Ireland, and is a very interesting ione. It was founded in 833 by the : Danes, who called it Vader Fiord the I i Ford of the Father hence its name. I ! : It is situated on the banks of the River I , . . Suir and in the midst of lovely hills. I The history of Waterford became con- I . reeled with that of England in the I 1 twelfth century. Dermot McMur- t rough, king of Leinster, was expelled I fiom hiskingdom in 1167 by another i preat man of the neighborhood, and I nought assistance from Henry II, who I allowed Richard de Clare CStrongbow) I to raise a force wherewith to help Der- ! mot. Soon the humiliated monarch I was back on his throne. Then Strorg- I fcow married Dcrmot's daughter Eva, end finally succeeded to the throne. I Henry II afterward landed at the I Tort to take possession of the terri- I tory that Strongbow had acquired and . to receive the submission of some of j ' the Irish chieftains. Y.arbeck came to I take the city in 1492 and was repulsed. This led 'Henry VII to exclaim: "Urbs 1 Jntacta manet Watcrfordia" tbe city j cf Waterford remains untouched), I which since that time has been the I motto of the city. J In the month of August. 1S4D, her I majesty. Queen Victoria, spent a night lu the harbor, in the royal yacht, on I b journey from Cork to Dublin. In her j Journal are recorded her impressions of 1 the surroundings: "The harbor i3 rocky on the right as one enters, anl very fiat to the left; as one proceeds the land rises on either Fide. We passed Duncannon fort, whence James II embarked after the tattle of the Boyne, and from which Ihey had not saluted for fifty years." Waterford is the fourth port in Ireland. Ire-land. It has a large provision trade vith England and imports corn from Ithe Mediterranean and Black sea port?. Large steamers carrying live or dead ttock leave the quay daily, and frequently fre-quently the cargo consists of 500 sheep I and 1,000 head of cattle. A century ago the building of wooden wood-en and iron ships gave employment to many people, but the trade decreased , end was finally given up. Another lost Industry was that of glass cutting, for I which the city was famous, purchasers or collectors of antique curiosities give large prices for specimens of "Water-i "Water-i ford glass." An object of great interest In the city Is a circular building called Reginald's tower; it has a plain parapet para-pet and conical roof. It is said to date from 1003, and to have been erected by Reginald, the son of Litricus, a Danish king. In its time it has been a fortress, fort-ress, a royal residence, a mint and a bridewell, and is now a residence 8 gain. Within its walls was celebrated the marriage of Strongbow- with Eva, I daughter of Dermot McMurrough. From the top of the building lovely views are obtained of mountain, wood and water; and also of the chief places of interest in the city. Among these $ Is the leper hospital, originally founded !- and endowed by King John, whose sons, during their stay at Lismore, having indulged to excess in the salmon sal-mon and cider for w hich the town was j then, as it is now, famous, developed I s skin trouble which the physicians of I that time called leprosy. King John II fit once ordered the hospital to be "built; this work he probably considered I to be a religious act. The leper hospl- tal of the present day was built on j - I John's hill about a hundred' years ago. 1 There are the remains of a Francis- i can monastery w hich was once used as I a place of worship by the Huguenots, I who sought safety in Waterford. The 1 I'rotestant cathedral stands on the site of a Danish cathedral built in 1006; and rebuilt in 1773. About fifteen miles from Waterford, on the line to Limerick, Carrick-on-Suir, with its famous castle, comes into view. The towers are of the Edwardian Ed-wardian period, and the mansion in the Elizabethan style was built in 1565 by "Black Tom" Butler, the tenth early of Ormond, who was a great favorite of Queen Elizabeth. Not far from Carrick are the Come-ragh Come-ragh mountains, which are without peaks, but have among their many recesses re-cesses some lovely lakes, of which Coumshingawn Lough is the prettiest. It is 1.250 feet above the level of the sea, and on the west side is a cliff that rises perpendicularly to the height of 1,000 feet. On the north side is a point called Jacob's Ladder, which commands com-mands a splendid view rich woodlands, wood-lands, green pastures, shimmering lakes, lofty towers and historic ruins. Clonmel, the county town of Tipper-ary, Tipper-ary, is a lovely little town In the midst of very picturesque scenery, and is interesting in-teresting chiefly because it was the birthplace of Lawrence Sterne, author of the immortal "Tristram Shandy." Twelve miles from Limerick Junction Junc-tion there is a railway- station called Goold's Cross, and five miles from that station is the famous "Rock of Cashel." An old legend says that the rock is a mouthful brought by Satan from the "Devil's Bit mountain." It rises abruptly ab-ruptly from an extensive plain to a height of 300 feet, and is crowned by the remains of Cormac's chapel, with its stone roof, the cathedral, a palace, a great stone cross and a building called the "Vicar's Choral house." Cor-mac Cor-mac McCarthy, after whom the chapel is named, was both king and archbishop archbish-op of Cashel, being called to the throne when over 70 years of age and after spending the greater part of his life in a monastery. He was born in 831 and died in 908. ! The chapel is of hewn stone, both walls and roof. The doorway is in Saxon style, as are all the other parts of the building. The ceiling is of stone, groined with ribs springing from the stunted Saxon pillars, with enriched en-riched capitals. There is one fine Saxon Sax-on "arch ornamented with grotesque heads of men and animals, placed at stated distances from the base upward. up-ward. The walls are relieved by paneled pan-eled arcades. The pilasters of these arcades are beautifully ornamented with fret and scroll work. No one eeems to know anything about the origin of the Round Tower, though it stands ninety feet high, built of sandstone, while the castle and church are of limestone. The cathedral is in the pointed style and measures 200 feet from end to end. Divine service was held in it until 1740. In 1495 the cathedral was burned by Gerald, the eighth earl of Kildare, w ho hoped by burning it to destroy the bishop of Meath. The earl was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London; Lon-don; he was taken for trial before Henry VII and his council. The earl pleaded that he was not sufficiently learned to defend himself against so great a scnoiar as ine Disnop. xne King told him to choose a counselor, and pledged his word that the man who was chosen should defend him. "Give me your hand on it," said the earl. "Here is my hand," said the king, "and choose a good one, for thou art in sore need." "I will choose the best in England," said the earl. "And who is that?" asked the king. "The king himself," was the reply. At this the king laughed, and, turning turn-ing to his council, said: "A wiser man might have made a worse choice." When the bishop charged the earl with burning the cathedral, he not only acknowledged the act. but confessed that he had hoped that the bishop was inside. This amused the king, but irritated ir-ritated the bishop, who exclaimed: "Your majesty must see that all Ireland Ire-land cannot rule Jiis man." , "Then he shall rule all Ireland," promptly replied the king, who had been Impressed with the frankness of the earl. The king appointed him lord deputy and restored to him his honors and estate.?. Limerick is the sixth port in Ireland; it occupies a fine situation on both sides of the River Shannon; centuries ago, it was known as Lummach the spot made there because a portion of it was occupied by a gang of outlaws who plundered the country and brought their booty to this headquarters in the town. Limerick was supposed to be an important place in the time of St. Patrick: however, little is definitely known of its history before the arrival of the Danes in 812. After being defeated de-feated many times, the Danes captured the city and held it until 1013, when they were subdued by Brian Boru. On the arrival of the English in 1174, Limerick Lim-erick was the capital of the Kingdom of Thomond, or North Munster. Henry II soon after he landed obtained possession pos-session of it, but upon his departure from the country the native prince regained re-gained his territory. In 1175 Raymond Le Gros, with the assistance of the. king of Ossoryt Invested In-vested the city and by fording the river riv-er in the face of the enemy, so daunted daunt-ed them that he was allowed to enter almost without opposition. He secured the city by a garrison, but on the death of Strongbow the place was again evacuated by the English. This territory was divided by King John amongst some of his followers, who introduced a colony of English settlers, chiefly from the west country. coun-try. During the many troubles and rebellions in the times of Henry VIII and Elizabeth, the city was very loyal. In the war which followed the rebellion rebel-lion of 1641 Limerick was seized by Lord Muskerry. General Ireton, with ihe parliamentary army, sat down before be-fore the walls in 1651 and after a siege of six months the city capitulated. Worse, a thousand times, than the horrors hor-rors of bombardment was the plague which broke out among the besieged people and of which, on the surrender, Ireton caught the infection and died. When the troops marched out of the city they had more the appearance of skeletons than of men. After the battle of the Boyne, King William advanced against Limerick, which was then garrisoned by the flower flow-er of King James' army. A breach having been made in the walls an attempt at-tempt was made to carry the city by storm, but the troops that forced their way in were assailed with intense fury by a mixed crowd of soldiers, citizens and women, and exterminated almost to a man. A year afterward the tity was again besieged by General Sinkel. The English troops crossed the Shannon Shan-non and surrounded the city before the expected supplies from France had arrived, ar-rived, so a surrender was agreed to and the famous treaty of Limerick was signed. In this treaty it was set forth: That all persons of what quality and cendition soever who were willing to leave the kingdom of Ireland should do sb, and be free to go to any country (England and Scotland excepted), taking tak-ing with them all their household stuff. Another section of the treaty confirmed Roman Catholics In the rights and privileges which they possessed or as they did enjoy in the reign of King Charles IL The terms of tha treaty were confirmed by William and Mary, but the house of commons declined to ratify the articles relating to the Roman Ro-man Catholic form of worship. Limerick Limer-ick has ever since been called "The City of the Violated Treaty." The stone on which the treaty was signed is one of the sights of Limerick. Limer-ick. It is a rough, oblong block of limestone, w ider at one end than at the other. It rests on a limestone pedestal about ten feet high. On one side is the following inscription: "The treaty of Limerick, signed A. D. 1691." The violation vio-lation of this treaty gave rise to a very solemn joke: Why is the treaty of Limerick like an eaten plum? Because all that remains is the stone. The industries of the city are bacon curing, milling, manufacture of army clothing, of lace, and of condensed milk. Fifty years ago the beauty of Limerick lace was known all over the world. It is still made in the Convent of the Good Shepherd, as well as by some lacemaking firms. The lace is so rich in quality that it is imported to Belgium, and from there exported at about four times the cost. The glory of Limerick is the river on which it stands. The Shannon expands into a tolerably large lake, called Lough Ailen. A few miles further on it spreads out into Lough Ru, forming midway the. small lake called Lough Elke. Then, as a broad, surging river, riv-er, it flows past Athlone, narrows as it reaches Shannon harbor, and again spreads itself into the famous Lough Derg. From Killahoe, south of this lake, the river ceases to be navigable, except for small boats, until it reaches Limerick, from which it flows majes-tieallv majes-tieallv out to sea. The banks of the Shannon are exquisite in their beauty, and are crowned with many ruins, ancient an-cient and historical. The immediate surroundings of Limerick are not very picturesque, but within easy distance is scenery of surpassing loveliness. L. A. H., in St. Louis Globe-Democrat. |